We need to do a self-checkup of our spiritual health. Are you distant these days from God? Can you hardly remember the last time your life was fruitful?
Do you feel far from joy and peace, victory and blessing? Do you hope that no one gets too close and asks you personal questions? Does your Bible feel as heavy as lead when you pick it up? Do my challenges for you to jump in to serve and speak up for Christ push you away? Do you wonder if you'll get any reward in Heaven. In fact, do you just hope that you will ever get there? Has the zeal you once knew dried up, and become a far off memory?
If these or a myriad of other telltale signs of spiritual listlessness and barrenness have cast their shadows across your path, then Christ's invitation to His spiritual gardening clinic is for you. Come to the vineyard and learn. Listen to Jesus as He introduces us to God's vineyard.
Get a spiritual checkup
Jesus is talking about grapes. Nothing was clearer in first century Judea than vineyards to these men. They often lived, walked, slept, and ate in the very shadow of the vine. The seasons of each Israelite's life were marked by the heavy clusters of fall grapes, the joys of harvest, the winter pruning of the vines, the first buds of spring, the vigorous growth of summer, and the joys of fall's harvest again!
Jesus sums up everything about His relationship to us in John 15. All we need He has supplied (that is a summary of His teaching from John 1-14). Now in John 15 He describes the delivery system. A promise is only as good as the delivery system.
How Does God Make Us Fruitful?
Open with me to Christ's explanation of what He wants this morning from each of us who know Him.
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Pastor John Barnett has been devouring the Word of God for over 30 years. John, now the teaching pastor of Calvary Bible Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan has served congregations in Oklahoma, New England, Georgia and California. He also served on the Faculty of the Master's College...
